computer science

Software crisis

Software crisis is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Software crisis rather than just read about it. In short: Software crisis is a term used in the early days of computing science for the difficulty of writing useful and efficient computer programs in the required time. The software crisis was due to the rapid increases in computer power and the complexity of the problems that could be tackled.

Key takeaways

Software crisis belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Software crisis to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Software crisis from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Software crisis is a term used in the early days of computing science for the difficulty of writing useful and efficient computer programs in the required time. The software crisis was due to the rapid increases in computer power and the complexity of the problems that could be tackled. With the increase in the complexity of the software, many software problems arose because existing methods were inadequate.

History The term "software crisis" was coined by some attendees at the first NATO Software Engineering Conference in 1968 at Garmisch, Germany. Edsger Dijkstra's 1972 Turing Award Lecture makes reference to this same problem:

The major cause of the software crisis is that the machines have become several orders of magnitude more powerful! To put it quite bluntly: as long as there were no machines, programming was no problem at all; when we had a few weak computers, programming became a mild problem, and now we have gigantic computers, programming has become an equally gigantic problem.

Causes The causes of the software crisis were linked to the overall complexity of hardware and the software development process. The crisis manifested itself in several ways:

Projects running over-budget and/or over-time Inefficient, low quality software, which often did not meet requirements Unmanageable projects and difficult-to-maintain code Vaporware The main cause is that improvements in computing power had outpaced the ability of programmers to effectively use those capabilities. Various processes and methodologies have been developed over the last few decades to improve software quality management such as procedural programming and object-oriented programming. However, software projects that are large, complicated, poorly specified, or involve unfamiliar aspects, are still vulnerable to large, unanticipated problems.

See also AI winter Development hell List of failed and overbudget custom software projects Fred Brooks System accident Technological singularity

References

External links Edsger Dijkstra: The Humble Programmer (PDF file, 473kB) Brian Randell: The NATO Software Engineering Conferences Markus Bautsch: Cycles of Software Crises in: ENISA Quarterly on Secure Software (PDF file; 1,86MB) Hoare 1996, "How Did Software Get So Reliable Without Proof?"

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Software crisis

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Software crisis claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Software crisis before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Software crisis ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Software crisis

In research: Software crisis appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Software crisis in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Software crisis is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1968 neologisms, History of software, Software quality, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Software crisis outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Software crisis in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Software crisis means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Software crisis out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Software crisis in simple terms?

Why does Software crisis matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Software crisis?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Software crisis.